The present invention relates to the field of microwave heating and, in particular, to a versatile microwave heating apparatus.
Field of the Invention
The art of microwave heating involves feeding of microwave energy into a cavity. Although the basic function of a microwave oven is to heat food by dielectric heating (i.e. via directly acting microwaves absorbed in the food), microwave ovens have been developed to include additional kinds of cooking capabilities, such as e.g. a crisp (or browning) function or a grill function, thereby enabling preparation of various types of food items and providing new culinary effects. Such additional kinds of cooking capabilities usually require additional components such as a browning plate or a grill element.
Description of the Related Art
An example of such a microwave oven is for instance described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,595,673, wherein the microwave oven comprises a magnetron, a browning plate acting as a bottom heater (on which the food is placed) and optionally an IR-radiating top heater, which all can be controlled via a control unit of the oven. The microwave oven comprises also a feeding system with an upper opening for supplying the directly acting microwaves and a lower opening for supplying microwaves under the bottom heater. Both openings are arranged in the right-hand lateral wall of the cavity.
A drawback of such prior art microwave ovens is that, while the design of a microwave oven may be optimized (or improved) for a specific function (usually the directly acting microwaves, also referred to as standard microwave heating in the following), this is often made at the detriment of another function (typically the crisp function). The crisp function of prior art microwave ovens is therefore usually not optimized. In addition, as the crisp function is obtained via the feeding system used for standard microwave heating, the performance of the crisp function may also significantly vary from one type of microwave oven to another.
Thus, there is a need for providing alternatives and/or new apparatuses that would overcome such drawbacks.